


Bonus chapters

by Unicornsandrainbows



Series: Be careful what you wish [2]
Category: The Witcher (TV), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:27:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23949865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unicornsandrainbows/pseuds/Unicornsandrainbows
Summary: Bonus chapters from a different PoV than the ones in 'be careful what you wish ('cause you just might get it)'none of this will make any sense if you don't read the first fic in this series I'm afraid.
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion
Series: Be careful what you wish [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1726543
Comments: 2
Kudos: 101





	Bonus chapters

Geralt is making dinner for himself and Ciri when he hears someone enter the stables. He’s just about ready to draw his swords and go investigate when he hears Jaskier’ voice as he’s talking to the horses. He’s too quiet to make out any words after a louder “Ouch! What the fuck, Roach? I thought we were friends! I sneaked you apples for years!”. It makes Geralt smile besides himself before he gets nervous about what their arrival actually means for him. Will they let him stay here with Ciri? What’s this Jaskier even like? Are they still angry at him?

He decides to go ahead and cut more vegetables to add to the stew already simmering on the stove so it will be enough for four people. It’s something that will keep him busy while also maybe serving as a small peace offering to Jaskier, and probably Yennefer, though he hasn’t heard anything from her so far. 

It takes ages until they actually come in, and when they do, Geralt nearly jumps out of his skin. He barely even notices the noise that his chair makes when it crashes against the ground, too busy staring at Jaskier. The man is buff, and suddenly the ‘neither slim nor soft’ description from the barkeep makes a lot more sense. He’s holding a very pale, barely awake Yennefer in one arm and what looks like a pair of rather heavy traveling packs in the other, without any effort, and even beneath the layers of winter clothing he can see how much broader his shoulders are. There’s finally a few grey strands in his brown hair, which is now long enough to be pulled back into a slightly messy bun. Geralt’s mouth is suddenly dry, and he licks his lips. He knows he’s staring, but Jaskier looks so, so good like this, he can’t help it. 

Jaskier doesn’t break the silence like he usually does, though. He just raises his eyebrow at him, clearly challenging him to say something, and it makes Geralt feel a lot of things all at once. Luckily, Ciri barges in before he can examine any of them too closely.

And, oh. Jaskier just lifts her and Yennefer up like ragdolls. Oh. Geralt shouldn’t find that hot, not when he doesn’t know if Jaskier hates him now, but his dick has a will of his own. He’s glad that they all disappear upstairs for a little while, giving him time to calm down and finish cooking and mentally prepare for actually talking to Jaskier.

\---

What follows is worse than any court banquet he’s ever attended. Ciri tries to make small talk, and he appreciates her effort, but the tension is still almost unbearable. Ciri gets up the second she’s done eating, and he can’t blame her. Hell, if he could, he’d run away, too, but after looking for Jaskier for months he can’t just run away now. He’s a grown ass adult who needs to find out just how much damage he’s done, and he isn’t usually a big believer, but in that moment he silently prays that Jaskier will let him explain this mess, and that they can fix it somehow, because he wants his bard back.

He’s been silent for too long, apparently, because it’s once again Jaskier who breaks the silence.

“Heard you were essentially trying to stalk me until Triss had mercy on you.”

Geralt tries very hard not to flinch at the accusation. Jaskier isn’t exactly wrong, but he had been desperate. The Jaskier that left the dragon mountain had no risk-awareness, no survival instincts, and didn’t fear anything. Combined with his lack of fighting skills back then it had been a mixture for disaster. He decides that being honest about his fears is the best course of action here, Jaskier needs to know that it wasn’t a malicious thing, he wasn’t hunting the bard, just… trying to look out for him. 

“I… was worried. After the mountain, you just vanished, and I thought… I thought something happened to you, we always run into each other. I thought you were dead.”

“What’s it to you? Last I recall, you wanted to get rid of me, very very desperately. I thought that after you almost killed me with a djinn wish, maybe you realized that you actually care about me, but then you ignore me for Yennefer for several days and then wish me out of your life, and then you stalk me to the point of visiting my parents – my parents, Geralt! I haven’t talked to them in ages! – and now all you have to say is that you were worried?!”

Ouch. Well, he deserved that. He still feels the need to explain himself, though, to get Jaskier to see that he really didn’t mean to cause harm. And, well, he needs to admit that he made a mistake, because he did, and Jaskier deserves to know that he was always wanted, is still wanted, no matter what Geralt had said on that stupid mountain.

“I… I didn’t mean what I said on the mountain. I didn’t want you to leave. Life without you is… wrong. Too quiet. I missed your singing, and your chatting, and the way you took care of me after a fight.”

His voice gets all quiet as he realizes how pathetic that excuse is. He wants a hole in the ground to open up and just swallow him whole so Jaskier can’t glare at him anymore, all angry. It would hurt a lot less, Geralt imagines, if he didn’t deserve it. But he does. He fucked up on the mountain, and then again when it took him months to find Jaskier, unable to apologize right away or swallow his pride and start the search with looking for Yennefer.

“If you want to stay here for the winter, I expect an apology. Make it good. Get on your knees if you want me to stop being angry, I guess. Tomorrow, you’ll go and apologize to Yennefer, too, for the djinn bullshit. And then you’ll apologize to Ciri for not being a part of her childhood for good measure. If, and only if, all of your apologies are satisfactory, you can stay, I guess.”

Geralt blinks. He hasn’t even considered that Jaskier can make him leave any time, this is his house, after all, which he mostly built himself, according to Caleb. But Jaskier is right, he needs to apologize, even without the added threat of being kicked out in the cold, not sure if he’d survive a winter without coin. So he gets to his knees, takes a deep breath to steady himself, and apologizes. He’s bad with words, and he knows it, but he tries, because he needs this to be good enough. He needs Jaskier to at least tolerate him long enough that he can make things right again.

Jaskier only gives him a small nod, and he tries to come up with something better, but his head is empty. He bites his lip nervously, but once again, Jaskier speaks up before he can make this worse without meaning to.

“Apology accepted, I guess. I… I miss you too, Geralt, but I refuse to go back to what we were.”

Then he leaves. Geralt stays on his knees a little longer, unsure what to do with himself afterwards. He kills monsters for a living, he deals with scarier shit on a daily basis, and yet nothing is as terrifying as talking about his feelings like this. At least Jaskier accepted his apology for now. If Yennefer doesn’t hex him tomorrow, things might be okay.

\---

He tries to earn his stay after that. Jaskier’s words have given him a weird awarness about the shift in their power dynamic. Suddenly, it’s not Jaskier who has to keep up with him and listen to him to survive anymore, it’s Geralt who is almost intruding in Jaskier’s home, which he has built for himself over the course of months, together with Yennefer. The two of them are so openly affectionate with each other that he briefly wonders if they’re more than friends, but nothing indicates that they are. Even when they bath together, it’s just chatting and Jaskier braiding her hair. He feels a bit weird about knowing this, but it’s not like he can switch off his hearing at will. For some reason, knowing that Yennefer and Jaskier are just friends is a relieve. He’s not sure why, but he gets a feeling that anything else would make him jealous, of whom or why he doesn’t know.

He doesn’t want to feel like he’s just intruding, though, so he starts to help out where he can, mostly with cleaning chores and the horses, because those are things he knows how to do. Other than that, he gives his best to be friendly. He makes a point of actually listening to the things Yennefer and Jaskier say to him rather than seeing it as a background noise. It’s surprisingly nice to learn more about them through actually listening.

\---

Jaskier and Ciri are out riding, and at first, Geralt is okay with it, but then the minutes turn into hours, and they’re still not back.

“Are you sure they’re not lost?”, he asks Yennefer for what must be the millionth time. She just sighs and raises an eyebrow at him. “Right, okay, but maybe I should go and look for them, just in case…”

“If you go out before it’s dark I’m going to hex you. Don’t make me waste my chaos on you, Jaskier will be pissed if I sleep through dinner because of you”, Yennefer replies without looking up from her work. 

He starts pacing. What if they run into bandits? Or Nilfgaardian spies? Or just a pack of wolfs?

“Jaskier has killed a pack of wolfs before. Can you try not to think so loudly? I’m trying to focus here.”

He wants to curse her out, but what would be the point? She’s probably right, Jaskier’s new muscles didn’t just magically appear, and rationally he knows that, but he still worries.

When they’re finally back, they’re perfectly fine. Of course they are. Yennefer trusts Jaskier’s abilities, and she doesn’t trust easily, so why can’t he accept that his bard has turned into a capable fighter?

\---

He decides that maybe, his brain will catch on once he sees Jaskier in action. When they’re almost out of venison, he asks to join his hunting. He’s worried that Jaskier will straight out refuse, they still don’t spend a lot of time alone together, but after a moment of consideration he agrees. 

The next morning the get up early, ready their horses and Geralt just follows Jaskier, observing how easily he falls into a canter, moving with his horse in fluid motions. It looks like Jaskier has never done anything else in his life, the way he moves through the dark forest with ease, not once having to stop to orient himself despite the fact that the sun is just starting to rise and he probably can’t see much to begin with.

Jaskier finds them a herd of deer about as fast as Geralt could have done with his smell, and while Geralt is still trying to pick one out, Jaskier has his bow out and ready. Geralt spots the likely aim, a doe that’s trailing behind a little, and Jaskier has the same thought, just that he shoots faster. He takes the doe down with a single, precise shot, and something in Geralt wants to… he isn’t sure what. Touch the bard, maybe, slam their lips together right here and there. Instead he watches in awe as Jaskier picks up the corpse with ease, carries it back to Ladybug and ties it to the back of his saddle with smooth movements. 

It’s just hunting, Geralt reminds himself. It’s hunting with someone he’s known for twenty years, and they’re still in a weird half-friends half-enemies situation, but fuck. Watching Jaskier hunt as if it’s the easiest thing in the world is hot as hell.

When Jaskier starts teaching Ciri how to shoot, it only takes him a few days to swallow his pride and ask if he can join.


End file.
